Blocking Opinions

I was looking and posting opinions and ratings today, I try very hard to be fair and constructive whenever I do, and I found a beautiful photograph posted by an obviously talented individual. I wanted to mark the photo and post some appreciation when I discovered I was blocked. I have never seen this persons work on the site before and I have never posted a positive or negative opinion or mark so I had surmised that he has blocked out extended groups of people by rating or some other qualifier. Am I the only one who not only finds this a bit insulting but actually sad that all opinions of work cannot be heard? If you are the kind of person who thinks that only a certain elite are allowed to vote or have opinion on your work then I feel for you. Please grow up and learn how to filter opinions into categories, ones you can learn from and ones you can disregard. Censorship, in my humble opinion, is not what a site like this is about. Thank you.

I picked up on this aswell. One particular gentleman activated extended blocking on his "discussion" photos. But on viewing his last dozen or so images, not one of them had a single comment, nor a single marking opinion.

So who knows, he either doesn&#180;t want anybody saying anything at all about his shots, or he has "accidently" engaged the extended blocking. Either way, it&#180;s his own loss..... and very strange behaviour. And I can&#180;t imagine what his point is !!

I posted this last year and Cameron echoed my sentiments, then it seemed as if this type of behavior stopped. Sadly it seems to be happening again. I don't know if it is the same individual or someone else who feels that opinions below a certain qualifier are beneath them. I have never received any unfair opinions on this site. The talent here is equaled only by the friendliness of the members. I hope the blocking member reconsiders their motives and chooses to hear all the opinions on what appears to be some very good work. Thank again!

just somebody set the extended blocking not correctly or tried to do it, set some values and forgot (I guess it concerned the rating value). I can not see that you are personally blocked (and you can see it in your profile or your account section (blocked by: 0)). I do not think that it is a thing needed to be warry, if somebody want to go on the street with closed ears - it is his problem, maybe he want to hear only his own music.

Thanks for looking into this Nick. I didn't think I was personally blocked I was just disappointed that someone might be screening his critics, looking for opinions of photographers who are worthy of having an opinion on their shots. I'm a beginner and this site has given me so much encouragement and positive feedback as well as inspirations that this kind of arrogance (if it is indeed intentional) is not at all in line with the atmosphere of this group. Hopefully it is just an oversight and not an attitude. Once again thanks for responding and for managing a truly great place for people to post their attempts at artistic photos!

Hi Cris, ..here's my few cents.., I think this is a great site, best I've found so far, because of its internationality and high quality of photos, but like any community it's not perfect, specially when it comes to art, there are no rules, guidelines, all a matter of opinion , taste, and imagination, yet, some is good,some is very good and some is excellent..,there would be no art without critique, good or bad, and to be an artist, in my opinion, one has to be able to accept both, and ignore the others..., the ones that block you when you post an honest, but negative opinion, happened to me 7 times so far, and then there is a group of astablished photographers that just get high ratings no matter what they post.., every community has an admiration club, just a fact of life..,you either belong or you ignore it and persue your goal.. Personally, I don't care much about the ratings, numbers.., I do photography because it makes me happy and I want to share it with others, no competing, ..just a very enjoyable hobby of mine, good luck to you, regards

Hey Dorota, You are right in the way you see it. Every community has it's up's and down's, it is a shame when people need to feed their ego and don't want to play nice with the rest of us. I agree that this is the best of the photo communities I've found and it has really helped me develop, and enjoy this great hobby. I was just a bit shocked when I discovered that some people only want to hear opinions from artists they feel are worthy of their time. I guess at the end of the day it's the snobs that can set me off. My guess is that even if they do read the forum, they won't change their way of thinking and that is sad. Thanks for taking the time to write and hopefully life is giving you a great ride that you can record with your camera! Best wishes! ck